Saturday, March 01, 2008

Marquette squandered an 11-point second half lead and fell to the Georgetown Hoyas 70-68 in overtime this afternoon in Milwaukee.

The Golden Eagles used trademark defensive pressure to keep Georgetown out of sync for most of the game, but Patrick Ewing Jr's clutch play in the second half and a critical mistake by Dominic James late in regulation gave the Hoyas new life in overtime.

After weathering the Hoyas' late comeback, Marquette scrambled to gain a three point lead, 63-60, with just seconds remaining in regulation. That's when Jonathan Wallace went to work. Dominic James inexplicably fouled Wallace on a three-point attempt with less than three seconds remaining. The GU senior confidently drained all three freebies, tying the game at 63-63 and forcing overtime. Earlier in the second half, James fouled Wallace on a three-point attempt as well.

Late in overtime MU had a chance to tie the game, regaining possession with nine seconds remaining. MU failed to get a shot off, as James indecisively turned the ball over to end the game.

After trailing by 11 midway through the second half, Ewing keyed the Hoyas' revival. The forward buried a pivotal three-pointer to bring the Hoyas to within 54-50 with six minutes to play, and doled out a pair of assists, one to Wallace to give the Hoyas a 56-55 with 3:35 to play, their first lead since early in the opening minutes.

Wesley Matthews paced the Golden Eagles with a season-high 22 points. JerelMcNeal had 17 points, and Dominic James 15. Lazar Hayward was outclassed by DaJuan Summers, going 0-8 from the floor with four rebounds.

Although MU forced 21 Georgetown turnovers, that advantage was negated by the Golden Eagles' poor free throw shooting (61% on 22 of 36 from the stripe).

15 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Great game, its too bad D James didn't mentally show up.

We can only wonder if he was supposed to foul on the dribble to allow two free throws or if he was just supposed to defend that three. Obviously fouling a three point shooter wasn't called and he did that twice in the last 6 minutes of this game.

MU deserved to lose with the FT% around .600.

It was obvious it wasn't meant to be.I'd rather get lucky later in March when we really need it.

wow...lot of blaming DJ....too bad Mcneal missed a ton of FT's early and took some brutal shots in the 2nd half...oh and are Cube, Fitz and Hawyward still on the team cause they were all three M.I.A. today...

The refs didn't lose this one, MU did. McNeil with 5-21 and missed FTs, Hayward with 0-8 and James with 2 major brain cramps. On the bright side, I've been calling out Matthews all year, and he got game today. Burke was a man today in the post. Not sure how it showed on TV, but in person, from my seat, he battled all day.

If there's one play I hate, it's not fouling a guy when you are up three. Why MU didn't foul them w/less than 7,8 seconds left is beyond me. Either awful execution, or terrible coaching when it mattered most. I'm at a loss. Why in God's name are you fouling the guy while in the act of shooting...regardless whether it was a good call or not. James should have never put himself in that position.

A sickening loss. Came down to free throws and terrible second half shooting. We got to the line, which was good. But you gotta go better than 25% in the second half.

Burke really played his butt off today. Too bad he couldn't hit that free throw after the dunk.

Do not foul on a three point attempt seems pretty basic to me. Especially when the score difference is less than 5 points. It also seems that this is something the coaching staff would remind everyone of in a game like this.

Crean's game coaching has always been suspect. This is probably the 3rd loss this year that's attributable to his inability to get in game strategy right or inability to change strategy mid game. This is not a call for his head... just an observation that the team would be much better if one of the assistants handled the in game strategy.

It may end up forgotten, but Burke's putback dunk came off of an atrocious possession and shot by DJ which was all after a time out that Crean called.

It boggles the mind that a timeout was actually needed for that foolishness. Starting next season, I'm buying a pocket notebook and charting every single posession after a time out. It really seems to me that MU NEVER scores after a time out.

After standing through out most of the game, and feeling like my heart had been ripped from my chest with the loss, my favorite moment was on the drive home when Homer had the guts to ask TC on the post-game show, "So did you have a play called on that final possession?"

Again, its easy to focus on braincramp James and soft Hayward, but given Burke his due for playing like a man.

Crean again showed he is NOT a good close game coach! #1) James did foul that guy. Why he didn't just put his arms up instead of reaching in is beyond me. He should have fouled him on the floor before he got the shot off. #2) When they were down 1 in overtime with 17 seconds left, why did Crean not have them foul? Instead he had them try and get a steal? Horrible coaching!!!!!!!!!#3) Lazaar and Barro played perhaps one of the worst half of basketball I have ever seen! Both of them made just total airhead plays.It should be interesting to see how many show up on tuesday night. What a let down today..

I think fouling immediately w/17 seconds left isn't smart. You got some of the fastest guards in the league out there and they had already forced 20 turnovers. You can't just foul immediately. Go for a steal and then foul.

But not fouling the guy when up three was atrocious. I don't understand for the life of me why coaches don't agree with that strategy.

The strategy is this: force them into a desperation three with 2 seconds left and no time for a second shot. DJ was not supposed to foul the shooter, he was supposed to challenge the shot without fouling. In that case, it's pretty unlikely that Wallace hits the three and we win.

If you foul before the shot, with more time on the clock, GT makes the 1st free throw and then gets their 7-foot-five guy near the rim for the put-back after they intentionally miss the 2nd shot.

Personally, I agree with the strategy that TC tried, DJ just messed up the execution of it.

Why is Crean being blamed for DJ's foul. Any highschooler knows not to foul. We had the game won, just a bad play on Dominic's part. Things happen in the heat of the game, unfortunately for us. I respect Crean for not jumping all over James in postgame interviews, am sure Dominic realizes it was a bonehead play.